Vagabonds

Chapter Sixteen: Reckless

It took everything Eliza had to make it to dinner without punching someone. The scandalized whispers had morphed into slurs, taunts, questions. People weren't bothering to keep their snide voyeurism quiet anymore, now wearing their curiosity as openly as their disgust. Even the teachers looked at her with expressions of worried aversion, as if she'd developed a bad smell.

Only Joe stayed by her side, plopping down at her cafeteria table with his steak and fries.

"I wonder if there's a vaccination against gossip," he said, a frown wrinkling the freckles on his nose. "It sure seems like a virus to me."

Eliza sighed.

"You okay?" he asked.

"What do you think?" Eliza said, her head in her hands. She stared forlornly at her salmon fillet, unable to eat as fury and fear gnawed on the empty lining of her stomach.

When would the army be back for her? What was Amile doing right now? Were the Vagabonds safe? Was Aquila staying out of sight? When would the students of Meru move on?

How was she going to keep this up?

"I think boarding school is like a pressure cooker." Joe lifted a fry and bit down thoughtfully. "Like, if we could all go home and cool off and be reminded that there are more interesting things to life than high school, don't you think they'd be a bit less..." He gestured with his fry as if he could envelop the whole day with a fried piece of potato.

Eliza chuckled halfheartedly.

"Maybe. But I've watched Mean Girls. I don't think it gets any better."

"Oh come on, that movie's clearly exaggerated for comedic effect."

Eliza tilted her face up, eyebrows rising.

"I think you need to get out more often."

Joe threw a fry at her. "For your information, I happened to go through a human psychology phase when I was thirteen. I wanted to understand why people don't make any sense, so I read a bunch about interpersonal dynamics. It was quite fascinating."

"I don't think you can learn about people from books, Joe."

"I'd argue that's the only place you can learn about them," he said with a sniff. "Besides, I'd rather deal with fictional characters and theories than with them." He gestured with another fry to where Tori and her entourage were sitting, heads together like some kind of sports group.

Eliza scowled.

"Can't argue there."

But even as she glared, Tori was peeling away from the cluster, tossing her hair in a shimmer of gold as she stalked between tables. Toward the back of the cafeteria.

Toward them.

Eliza straightened. Joe's eyes widened.

"Tori," Eliza said in greeting.

Tori looked around. Tossed her hair again.

And then slid into the seat beside Eliza.

"Look," Tori said in a low voice as the whispers swirled around them, fed by the strange sight of the girl everyone wanted to be sitting beside the girl no one wanted to get close to. "I know you saw... something. In that office."

Eliza sat back, folding her arms.

"Yeah, I saw someone very interesting."

Tori's lips pursed but she continued.

"It's not worth talking about. I don't think anyone needs to know about... him."

Eliza frowned, meeting Tori's clear blue eyes. They were such a different shade than Aquila's.